1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a data protection systems and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for implementing a storage lifecycle policy based on a hierarchy of storage destinations for backup image copies to improve storage lifecycle management.
2. Description of the Related Art
A typical enterprise (e.g., a small business, a government organization and/or large corporation) may accumulate a large amount of computer data. Employees and various entities use the computer data in order to perform one or more respective duties for the typical enterprise. If the computer data becomes corrupted, lost, damaged or otherwise unavailable, the performance of the one or more respective duties becomes impossible and/or delayed. Furthermore, overall productivity of the typical organization becomes significantly hindered. Moreover, customers pay the typical organization to use a portion of the computer data to perform various functions. Similarly, if the computer data became unavailable, the customers cannot complete the various functions and become frustrated. Accordingly, the typical organization loses actual and/or potential revenue streams due to the loss of the computer data.
Hence, the typical enterprise may implement a data storage backup and restore solution (e.g., VERITAS NetBackup) for recovering the computer data after an event where the computer data becomes unavailable (e.g., a disaster, a damaged disk, a corrupted file and/or the like). A storage administrator for the typical enterprise may configure a policy (e.g., a storage lifecycle policy) for managing one or more backup images (e.g., tape-based backup images). The policy may define a backup job or duplication job with a storage destination (e.g., a storage unit) and a retention period for the one or more copies of the backup images.
For example, the storage lifecycle policy may direct a backup job (which backs up a portion of the computer data as a backup image) to store the backup image in a storage unit (e.g., a disk drive, a tape drive, a logical storage unit (LUN), a virtual tape library (VTL) and/or the like) with a retention period of three weeks. Subsequently, the storage lifecycle policy may define a duplication job where the backup image is duplicated to another storage unit with a retention period of six months. The storage lifecycle policy may define one or more additional duplication jobs. Lastly, the storage lifecycle policy may define a job where the backup image is archived into a tape library or a disk array.
Conventional storage lifecycle policy management solutions do not efficiently use various computer resources (e.g., network and storage resources) during one or more storage lifecycle operations (e.g., duplication, backup and/or the like). Consequently, a storage device that comprises a primary copy of the backup image also exclusively performs the one or more storage lifecycle operations (e.g., replicating the primary copy to a target copy at a destination storage device or storage destination). Furthermore, current storage lifecycle policies only use a copy of a backup image as a source copy for a storage lifecycle operation if the copy is tagged as “primary”. Such a tag is easily modified, which constitutes a risk for each and every copy made from the “primary” copy. As such, a plurality of target copies may have different source copies. Currently, the storage lifecycle policy management solutions do not identify the source copy used in a particular storage lifecycle policy. In addition, the “primary” copy may have been corrupted or infected. Hence, the plurality of target copies may include copies of corrupted or infected data. As a result, the implementation of the storage lifecycle policy is disrupted.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus for implementing a storage lifecycle policy in a cost-efficient manner based on a hierarchy of storage destinations. The hierarchy of storage destinations may be used by a storage administrator to improve storage lifecycle management of a backup image.